I went to the Hungaroring in 2012, but I’m not planning to go there this year. Just some tips if you are going:

– When you have bought a ticket for a grand stand: do not sit there the entire weekend! You can walk around half of the track (turns 6-13), most of which are high-speed corners. It’s just indescribable to see modern F1-cars going through those corners! The only time it’s a bit busy in the general admission area is when there is an F1 practice, but not extremely busy.

– The pit-walk on Thursday is a must-see. Try to come earlier (about half an hour before the pit-walk starts), as most of the crowd comes a bit later, and there will be traffic jams in the pitlane then. In 2012, there was an opportunity to collect autographs at the main straight. After the pit-walk, you are obliged to walk from the pitlane to the first corner, which is also fantastic!

– For photographers: until 12 o’clock the best place for pictures is on the hill between turns 9 and 10. After midday, I would suggest photographing at the begin of the main straight. Most of the straight is surrounded by grand stands, but there are to patches where you can stand with any ticket. If you have a large camera lens (more than 300mm), you can also take great photos at turn 10. For this, you might need small steps. I added some pictures below just to give you an idea.

– If you have bought a general admission ticket: it’s not that expensive, but very good value for your money. On race day, the best place to sit by far is between the stands at the main straight. Lots of people know this, so it is very very crowded there. On race day, if you want a place to sit, come early (with that I mean between 8 and 9 o’clock. It’s a long wait, but it’s well worth it as you can see the F1 grid, a tv screen (maybe partly obscured, so watch out!) and a large part of the track (a bit of turns 4-5, turns 9-10 and the following straight, turns 12-13, the main straight and a part of the pit-lane).

– Last year we travelled by car on all four days and that was a success. If you want to park, do not park at a place where you have to pay (they’re a fraud: parking near the circuit is free). If you do not have tickets for a place at the main straight, DO NOT park your car at the first parking lots, but be patient and drive through to the next few parking lots: it’s a lot closer to the circuit, it’s not as busy and the traffic jams following the race are far better. We even left the main road and went off-road and drove to the next town. As a result, we were back in Budapest just 90 minutes after the race!

1) Pointy Ended Umbrellas – Even though we bought an official F1 umbrella in the circuit on the Friday, on Saturday, we were told we couldn’t take it in, I did get it in though up my trouser leg and in to my arm pit :)

2) Hire a scooter – it made life so much easier, we stayed in Budapest in a hotel, and just getting on the scooter and going to the track was so easy, apparently a Full UK car licence is enough to have pillion passengers, the scooter was a 200cc capable of 75mph and was £65 for 4 days hire, with a £150 deposit.

3) Buy General Admission – there are so many viewpoints around the track, its kinda pointless to buy a stand ticket, on Practice and Qualifying, we stayed around the pit straight, but on race day, we moved to the back of the circuit, it was so much better

4) Buy the official F1 2013 iPhone App – when available, it was great to glance at to see timings etc, even from a field I knew that if Hamilton / Raikkonen / Grojean had pitted again any time after lap 54, then Vettel would have caught them with lap times he was putting in.

5) Scale of Circuit – I hadn’t grasped how big the area of the circuit covered, prior to my visit, anyway, here’s a panoramic photo so others get some idea of how large the site is.

Hi guys!
Santa just brought me tickets to the 2013 Grand prix in Hungaroring and I can’t wait to go there.
It will be my first formula 1 race and I hope i will get a lot of usefull info from you.
My ticket is Three Corners Gold. Hope it’s a good one. I’m also a bit of a photography addict, and I really hope to come back with lots of cool photos.
Will a 250mm lens on a crop body (Canon 1,6x) be enough?

Great tips guys. I’m planning to go there this year with my car from Estonia (2000km away). Planning a ~10 day Czech + Hungary trip with the F1 race as a highlight of it.

Do you have any idea if the General Admission will be sold out or probably not? Can buy tickets from the gates?

As I’ll be going with my car more parking advice would be appreciated. Also if someone has good advice on hotels+hostels+camping sites – doesn’t need to be close, no problem driving 30-50km.

In Barcelona you could bring almost anything to the track as long as it wasn’t glass bottles or metal cans. Seems that Hungaroring is more strickt about it? So you can’t get in with your own food+drinks and chairs?

@alonsowiz It depends on the type of picture you want to take: if you want the photograph the entire car from relatively close by, then a 250mm lens should be fine. If you want to take pictures from further away (for instance of a car steering into a corner), I would recommend a bigger lense though.

@f1lauri Actually I did the same thing last year: two weeks in the Czech Republic and finishing at the Hungaroring. I bought my General Admission ticket on Thursday at the gates. I’m not sure about this, but I suspect you can still buy these tickets on Sunday. I would advice you to come as early as possible on Sunday: if you arrive at 10, I can guarantee you that there is no place on the hills around the circuit to sit on.

We booked a relatively cheap hotel in downtown Budapest and drove to the circuit in the morning. How to get to the circuit is clear: you basically get guided from the highway to your parking spot. Talking about parking, there are many free parking spaces (if you have to pay, it’s probably a fraud). Looking at this map, for GA you arrive from the North and pass number 8. Then the first free parking lot that you see is very busy and you have to walk a long way to get to the general admission zone. Therefore I would advice to take the second parking lot, which is a mere 100 metres walking from the nearest gate (which is nice!). When leaving the circuit, I would suggest taking the anti-clockwise route: what usually happens is that people want to leave at the same time, and you will be behind the people that parked at the first parking lot. What we actually did was get creative and go off-road: we ended up doing something like this and it saved us a lot of time on Sunday!

Then what you can and can’t take with you: I have actually no idea, but I don’t recall anyone carrying chairs. Food and drinks are fine I think: you don’t get searched at the gate or anything ;). Hope this has helped you a bit.

I am looking to go to Budapest this year and was after some more info about driving a car to the track.
Can anyone tell me what the traffic is like?
How early should you leave your hotel to get to the track on the Saturday and Sunday

Also does anyone know what the deal is with a grandstand ticket? I was very pissed off to find out that my grandstand ticket for Silverstone last year only guaranteed me my seat for the Race on Sunday and anyone else could sit in MY seat any other time through the weekend. Is this the case at Hungaroring?

Staying in Budapest with family from Monday to Monday, never been to the city before so looking forward to a few days of exploring followed by 3 days at the track. Got 3 Super Gold tickets (really as penance for cocking up with the Silverstone tickets…..)

@funkmaster
If you are not an F1 fanatic yet, I would advise you to learn as mutch as possible about the sport before going to the Hungarian GP. A lot of the fans say that usually the Hungarian GP is boring, but it is only boring, if the on track overtakes are your main concern. Budapest was always about the qualy and the strategy. It is not without a reason that pundits and drivers say it is “Monaco without the walls”.
If you want to know what to expect:
-all of the drivers who have won here were champions, or became champions, except four: Barichello, Webber, Kovalainen, Boutsen
-the track has produced many unexpected winners over 27 years, most notably Damon Hill almost won here in the Arrows, but his car gave up on the final lap.
-maiden wins: Kovalainen, Button, Alonso, Hill
– this is one of the few GPs that Prost have never won
If it rains, dont try to predict the results.
You should also watch some archive footage if you can (notable ones: 1997, 2006, 2008, 2011).

Apart from F1, you should try every food you can, I know we are a bit like the Indians with the sipce (its never too mutch), but you should try them, because you cant eat things like these anywhere else. Note that goulash is not the only food that we eat :D Try some of these